


Two New Notifications

by orphan_account



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Awkward Conversations, Based on a Tumblr Post, Castiel and Dean Winchester Being Idiots, Castiel and Dean Winchester First Meet, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Established Jessica Moore/Sam Winchester, F/M, First Meetings, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Heartbroken Castiel, I'm Bad At Tagging, Late Night Conversations, Lonely Castiel, M/M, Masturbation in Shower, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, POV Castiel, POV Dean Winchester, Past Castiel/Mick Davies - Freeform, Past Lisa Braeden/Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester is Loved, Sam is a cutie who deserves the world, Sexual Tension, Slow To Update, Tags May Change, Texting, Tumblr Prompt, Twitter, Work In Progress, Writer Castiel, Writer Dean Winchester, but not really, dean's obsession with cas' eyes, i love sam winchester too much ;), like he would marry his eyes alone
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-12-27
Packaged: 2019-07-04 21:40:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15849912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Castiel Novak and Dean Winchester are famous authors who write books the complete opposite genre of each other. Both of their fanbases start to claim that the two are rivals, thanks to rumours, but the two have never met before (despite their connections)When a series of events start to form between the two, it's up to fate to match them up one day.Or the fic where Dean and Cas' only way of communication is Twitter.





	1. Cold Mattress

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a Tumblr prompt I found a while ago. Thank you to that.  
> Also, I will be alternating Point of Views between the characters. Keep an eye out for that.  
> Enjoy ;)

Castiel Novak has a bad secret that he shouldn’t be keeping. Well, bad _secrets_. Plural. Some are good, some are worrying and bad for him.

It's just another stressful night in Castiel’s boring, plain apartment. By boring, he means the house is just a big, room of emptiness. Other than his pretty sweet living room and kitchen, he leaves it that way. It’s also pretty obvious the past owners didn’t know how to paint. He didn’t bother re-painting when he eventually moved in almost three months ago. For a successful, romantic poet-slash-writer like him, he deserved more than a crap apartment, but it’s definitely better than finding the paparazzi in your backyard at three in the morning. We don’t ever talk about that experience. Never.

He doesn’t even know how he managed to get such a big fanbase. He’s grateful and all, but all Cas did was write a book on his sad love life. He blames his stardom to all the sad, teenage girls in North America. In conclusion, he didn’t choose the celebrity life, the celebrity life chose him. There isn’t much to talk about.

He wouldn’t be here without Jess, though. He’ll always be thankful for her. It’s almost like angels from above sent her down after seeing the broken white boy cry like an ugly three-year-old.

Jess would hammer on Castiel’s door every day after work to check on him and feed him her homemade chicken noodle soup. Without her, he would’ve stayed a broken, hungry white boy forever. In fact, she’s the one that encouraged Castiel to talk to a professional editor after checking out his poems. It just popped up in her hands.

But talking to an editor meant that he had to go straight to his sweet-toothed, annoying ass brother.

Castiel tried. He really, really tried to avoid him. He even made an effort to bike his way through New York if it meant that he was getting a better editor than Gabriel. All his options had failed. No one seemed to enjoy his stories enough. They would read half, decide they didn’t even like how it was written at all, and abandon Castiel’s number and email. Everyone just told him to “Come back with less emotion,” or “Try a different writing style, maybe?” So destiny gave him his last option to run to Gabe to edit his shit for him.

The main problem with Gabe is that he’s _way_ too strict. Deadlines? Too short. He won’t even do the job correctly. All Gabriel does is sit around in his giant bungalow and chew on airheads. Just as troublesome as he was ten years ago. He’s been stuck with this fool way too long and he’s going to go insane. Hell no.

He gets it somewhat done for the fans, though.

Here’s the part where Castiel has to keep a secret (Just to name one):

For his second book, he was requested to hand in at least 30 pages of ‘writing’ by March 1st for Gabe to read and edit. So far, he’s managed to keep Gabriel out of ‘hulk mode’ for a record-breaking three months now.

And let’s be honest here, it’s totally because Castiel is living five states away from him.

It isn’t his fault he’s running out of emotional energy. Words just don’t come out of your mind and into your pencil that simple. He needs to find another boyfriend to cheat on him. It’s like Taylor Swift, but a gay man with no style or looks.

So about the whole ‘ex-boyfriend’ issue, it’s been four years since Castiel found his dumb ex-boyfriend, Mick, cheating on him with another British dude named Ketch. It's funny actually, he recently got a personal letter in the mail from them inviting him to his engagement party. How ironic is it that it was Castiel dreaming that he was in Ketch’s place. Whatever, good for them. It’s best for both of them to get over it.

Here’s another (Not really) secret:

Castiel isn’t over it at all. He writes poems about his light grey eyes and the way his lips move every time he speaks. Although it sounds really cheesy, it actually gave him a job. Hah, take that Mick Davies!

So that’s where he is in life. Never going to fan events and drinking cold coffee. Don’t forget the daddy issues. How exciting.

With Castiel completely unaware, his phone vibrated loudly from beneath his pockets. It buzzed three times before Castiel finally noticed, and then checked to see who the number was. Realizing that no one else would call him at 11 o'clock at night, he sighed as his finger swiped right to pick up the call. The first thing he hears is Jess’ powerful voice busting through the petite phone speaker.

“Castiel, my man! I haven’t talked with you for a while now. How are you?” She questioned. Castiel pinched the bridge of his nose and inhaled softly to keep him from snapping.

“I’m fine Jess, but I’m really trying to work right now. Could you please call later?” He gently told Jessica.

“Nuh-uh, I’m coming over right now and bringing food,” She demanded. “You’ve been working too much these days. Can you leave some time for your best friend, please?” Castiel felt a pang of guilt rush through him.

“I understand where you’re going, but I really need to hand this in soon for Gabriel-”

“Fine, I hope you finish what you’re working on soon. Just know that I miss you. I’ll be dropping off a bag of bagels by your front door later. Bye, Castiel.” She sounded a bit down and taut, but Castiel was helpless. He was about to end the call but Jessica’s voice abruptly popped back. “Oh, and by the way, Sam wanted me to let you know that he wants you to call him back later. Turns out you don’t pick up your phone a lot with your agents either.” Her voice was as dangerous as a dull knife.

She ended the call before Castiel even had a chance to say ‘goodbye.’ He knows how much she cares about him, and how much he owes to her, but he’ll just have to give something in return later. Right now, apparently, he has to call his agent back, who he hopes isn’t in too much of a bad mood.

Castiel smoothly shut his laptop down and stood up to stretch his sore muscles. He let himself be distracted from the dark, fogged-up window and watched as the cars passed by.  And before Castiel could even leave his spot, his phone jumped with an intense vibrate, then jumped around again. He slowly reached down to pick it up and put it to his ear, responding with a late greeting.

Sam and Jess are almost the same people.

“Castiel, what’s up? How’s that book going?” He sounded rushed. Sam’s voice wavered with concern.

“Uhh, it’s good. Got a few poems ready,” He lied.

“Nice, nice. Hey Castiel, do you have social media, by chance?” He said quickly, then paused.

Castiel knows that Sam knows he doesn’t keep anything personal (other than the Microsoft word documents of his hopeless love story,) on the internet, so there had to be a reason he was calling.

“No… Why, is there something wrong?” Castiel inquired.

“Nah,” Sam snickered. He inhaled to speak again but stopped, “S’just, you should probably get one. ”

“Sam? Is everything alright?”

“There’s a lot to discuss with you, Castiel. Why don’t we just talk it over those bagels Jess is bringing, It’ll only take fifteen minutes of your time. Thanks.” And Sam ended the call before Castiel could say anything, again.

Seriously, Sam and Jess were made for each other.

Castiel trailed into the kitchen to follow a knock behind the door. Knowing it obviously isn’t Sam yet, he waits for Jess to leave to avoid the embarrassment and quietly creaks open his front door to snatch the brown bag of bagels from the floor. He stalls in front of his kitchen window, wondering what got Sam in such a hurry to get here.

***

Maybe about less than twelve minutes after the bagel’s arrived, Sam’s strong knuckles rapped on his door. Before he opened it, Castiel ran his fingers through his hair and rapidly straightened his shirt so he could at least look presentable to his agent. He unlocked his door and was suddenly forced to step aside when Sam walked past him in a hurry.

“Hello to you too, Sam.” He snarked at the taller man. Sam flopped down on his leather couch and started to click and type, not making any eye contact with Castiel. Not even a quick smile.

Castiel roamed around his living room with a tall mug of espresso. He waited until Sam gave him some sort of sign to speak. Sam’s expression did not look too happy either. Castiel was almost worried that he was going to lose his job today. When Sam stopped typing and leaned back on the couch with a sigh, he was certain that he was in some sort of trouble. He patted to the empty spot beside him and made eye contact with Castiel.

“Take a seat, I need to show you a few things. Maybe ask you a few questions too,” He whispered the last part to himself. Castiel sat down beside Sam and confusingly stared at his laptop screen, wondering why he had opened twitter to him. He could feel Sam’s eyes burning alongside his skull. He searched the screen for a few more seconds before his agent spoke again.

“You never told me you used to have a secret friendship with my brother, Castiel. I also _did not_ know you two had beef.”

Castiel furrowed his eyebrows at Sam and tried to figure out what he meant by that. Does he mean _his_ brother or is he quoting a tweet? “I don’t know if it’s a rumour or not, but I’m pretty sure you have nothing against Dean, right?”

The smaller man gasped in sudden realization and looked up at the roof. He then shifted to look at Sam.

“You mean _your_ Dean,” He said. “I’ve never met him in my whole life. What do you mean by me having something against him?”

Sam sighed in relief.

“I’ll send you a link later, but you can borrow my laptop for a bit.” He handed his device to Castiel’s lap and walked over to the kitchen. “You have quite a lot to read.”

Castiel scrolled through the tweets to find a variety of information about it. All of which was very untrue. Castiel has never even heard of Dean until Sam mentioned him at dinner before. But these tweets, they were very… very different from what Castiel sees from everyday life.

 

 **meg** @castielsmasters609

_How on god’s green earth do people even bear to be around these monsters? @Impala67 fans are awful to us, imagine how rude they are to people that don’t like the same icecream flavour as them smh_

 

Castiel goes to click on the mentioned user and notices that the user is Dean. In his bio description, it says that he wrote a horror-themed book, “Within the Woods,” coincidentally published a day after his first book came out. But why do their fans hate each other? He scrolls further to see a tweet from a fan of Dean.

 

 **charlieeeee #withinthewoods** @charlesbreadburnt

_Castiel never goes to events. all he does is sit in his room and cry over his ex all day. The devil works hard but dean works harder. No wonder dean broke that friendship with him. yuck!_

 

 **Abbadonnie ~ stop the hate!** @ABBAdonewithyou

_Just because the two fandoms don’t go together, and Castiel's agent is dean’s brother, doesn’t mean the two totally different authors have a secret beef going on between them. Stop assuming these things. We need to have more respect for one another._

 

He scratched and internally shuddered his head at a few of those tweets, but his brain completely twists at the next one. What kind of people write these tweets?

 

 **krissy loves deancastiel** @salandderek477

_who else feels that maybe dean and cas had something going on between them in their past friendship. they probably could be dating right now behind our backs. trust your instincts, kids. #destieliscanon_

 

Whom?

And that’s enough for today. He’s concluded enough information. Castiel slammed the laptop shut and lightly flings it aside, his eyes wide open. He doesn’t like this gossip. Not one bit. But he kind of wanted to see what Dean had said about the situation, so Castiel opened up the cover again, and typed in _@impala67_ into the search bar before Dean’s full name popped up. Not sure how he remembered the username, but it probably just stuck to him. He clicked on his user to observe the bio more when a notification told him that the author had tweeted something new.

The tweet was a selfie of him hugging a young, tall American Foxhound. In the photo, he wore a black baseball cap and a dark blue, puffed up coat that was zipped up halfway. In the background, the sun was barely setting. It means the photo was taken just a few hours ago. Dean had deep green orbs for eyes, and his nose was pink from the cold air. His freckles were blended in with his pale skin but were visible enough if you looked closely. Sam’s brother was very good looking, no wonder Dean’s fans hated Castiel, he couldn’t compete with _that_ face.

“Stop gazing at my brother. You can keep him later.” Castiel jumped in his chair. He quickly exited the photo and scrolled further down. Sam just smirked like a smartass.

“That was a whole rollercoaster, and I only looked at four tweets. What did your brother say about the whole issue? Is he just ignoring the whole issue?” Castiel said as he went deeper into the man’s profile.

Sam set his green tea on the roughed up coffee table and sat down on the arm on the couch. He and Jess leave their items in his house on purpose all the time. His fingers reached down to move the trackpad and then turned the laptop so Castiel could see the tweet.

“So you’ve refused to speak to me today then, Sam?”

“Just shut up and read the tweet, would ya?” Castiel blinked back to the screen. He squinted his eyes at the tiny words.

 

 **Dean Winchester** @impala67

_Just to clear things out; yes, my brother Sam does work for Castiel. No, Cas and I have never talked before. Have a nice day._

 

Castiel was taken aback by the new nickname. No one has ever called him that. Although he did speak on the issue, Castiel did feel that Dean worsened the situation by calling him the odd name. The two fandoms wouldn’t be convinced enough that they haven’t met. The date on the tweet reads that it was posted yesterday. Castiel guesses that’s why the comments and tweets still keep on coming.

“He just called me ‘Cas,’ they’re never going to be convinced. No offence Sam, but he’s got no sense,” Castiel lifted his hands up and dropped them. He could see Sam raise an eyebrow at the corner of his eye. He asked, “This whole thing is a mess. How long has it been even going on in the first place?”

“Only for a few weeks, that’s it.” His agent tried to sound somewhat hopeful, but Castiel still internally face-palmed.

“Only for a few weeks,” Castiel echoed back.

“Hey, turn that frown upside down. When I find a solution, I’ll let you know ASAP,” Sam said enthusiastically. Castiel bit his lip and nodded. He gulped the rest of his tea, shoved the laptop into his bag and waved to his client as he raced to the door. “See you another day, ‘Cas,’” Sam joked and closed the door on his way out.

Castiel walked back into his small kitchen to drop off the mug Sam left on the coffee table. The digital clock on the stove flipped to midnight. It’s already been an hour. He settled himself on his mattress again and tried to come up with more writing ideas, but curiosity killed the cat and he decided to give Twitter another visit. He couldn’t help himself.

He created his new account and took a crappy picture of one of the art pieces in his room as his icon. Castiel stood up on his knees and took a nice, aesthetically pleasing, top-down photo of his laptop and journal. He thought it would be a nice idea to tweet a picture showing that he was actually working on something. But before, he probably would need to talk to Sam again.

One of the late-night birds from his window made a soft peep, and Castiel took it as a reminder that it was too late in the night to do anything special. He’d try to post it in the morning.

Castiel found out it was probably not the best idea for him to go through his Spotify playlist whilst scrolling deeper on Dean’s twitter, but it was totally worth it. Just for the cute dogs, though. Nothing else.

He finally set his laptop down after hours of his secret stalking and found out many new things about Dean. Firstly, the other man was just as popular as him. Second of all, He rarely ever tweets actual words. Most of his tweets are just photos of him with different animals. He’s posted a few pictures of polaroids of what seemed like a younger Sam, but he couldn’t tell. The ones that appeared to have a long face and clumps of lengthy, brown hair were definitely Sam, so Castiel saved a few to his phone. He knew he could use it against Sam one day. Let’s hope it goes well with blackmail.

Castiel switched his phone’s alarm on and shut off all the lights in the apartment before he went to bed. As usual, he flipped and turned a few times before Castiel actually fell into a deep sleep.

He dreamed of different kinds of dogs, coffee brewers, and willow green.

Approaching the end of his dreams, a familiar, male voice started calling out for him. He searched everywhere but still couldn’t find him. Suddenly, he was in a forest with chocolate trunks. Waterfalls ran out of water and owls hooted. The voice turned from a loud whisper to a talking volume very slowly.

Then just as he was about to open his eyes, a huge hand comes and slaps him across his cheek. It’s like the life was slapped out of him. Castiel tumbled out of his mattress and on to the ground. He attempted to open his eyes, but they cringed shut again from the bright light of his window, and then tried to figure out if he was possibly still alive from the impact. He forcefully blinked his eyes open to scan the room and found Sam almost fully bent over in hysterical laughter. There were tears slipping out of Sam.

Castiel rubbed his eyes and frowned. His hair stuck out like crazy.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” He continued to laugh a little longer, then it died down. “I’m sorry, man,” Sam repeated. Castiel gave him his best bitch-face.

“What the hell, dude. Why are you at my house so early?” Sam began to talk but Castiel interrupted again, “Wait, how did you get in?”

“Castiel, it’s not ‘So early,’ It’s noon,” Sam imitated, “And Jess gave me her keys to the apartment so I could make sure you were alive. I, personally, came because fans were blowing up my timeline talking about how you made a twitter account. I wanted to know myself.” Sam held out his hand to help him up.

He grabbed ahold of his wrist and stood up to sit on his bed once again. It abruptly came to him that he forgot to plug the charger into the power socket last night, meaning his phone died and the alarm never woke him up. He might solely have to get a digital clock from now on.

Castiel gestured for Sam to leave the room, slipped on the nearest pair of jeans, and strolled to his bathroom to clean his teeth. When he looked at himself in the mirror, he also mentally kept a reminder to himself to shave off the awful stubble on his cheek. Just as he walked into the living area, Sam was on Castiel’s phone.

“What the-”

Sam noticed Castiel’s eyes widen and Sam started giggling. He handed the phone back to him and Castiel playfully slapped him on the shoulder and snatched the phone from him.

“Dude, really?” Sam looked constipated trying to keep his laughter inside. “Just like my brother. What kind of username is _angelofthelord?_ ”

Castiel attempted to judge him back, “Shut up, at least mine isn’t something boring like _winchestersam._ ” Sam just rolled his eyes.

“Anyway, a few things, you obviously should’ve told me you were making a twitter account. I needed to check a few things with you first, but I’ll get that done later. It’s not important.”

“Ok, What’s the other thing?”

“The other thing is that Jess made pancakes and I was forced to give some to you today,” He joked. Sam picked up the Tupperware from the cloth bag he had on the couch and frisbee’d it on the counter.  “Jess really cares about you, ya know. You should check in with her soon.”

“Yeah, I know,” Castiel responded seriously. Jess spends time in the day to cook extra for him. He knows he doesn’t deserve it, but she’s too kind and she should probably pay her back with something soon.

They both stood up and Castiel opened the door for Sam before they waved their goodbyes. Sam walked halfway through the door before backing up to meet Castiel’s eyes again.

“And also, you should definitely try to text back your editor.” Castiel sighed and nodded his head as thanks. Then Sam rushed out of his apartment without any more detail.

When he got the time later in the afternoon, Castiel checked his phone to search for what Gabriel said. He recognized that his editor had sent 2 new texts last night, plus a photo of him with another redheaded lady, who appeared to look a tiny bit older than Gabe. The first text read _“Sorry, bucko. Can’t edit anything this week. I’m busy.”_ And the second one read _“Met this lovely woman. Her name is Rowena.”_ Castiel assumed the lady in the picture was her, and he sent back a thumb up emoji.

So apparently, his editor is with another woman this week. That means he’ll get no annoying emails from Gabe for five days. He wants to go to this woman and give her the best kiss of her life, to thank her for taking Gabriel, but Castiel knows that Gabe will end up sleeping with her, so the deed is done from his side.

He ran a hand through his hair and assured that he was going to post a nice picture on twitter today. Just out of happiness.

Instead of using the poor quality photo of his journal and laptop as his first photo/tweet on his twitter, he took a photo of himself leaning against his bedroom window. He constantly kept retaking the photos over and over again until he finally decided upon a picture without his face, but the shadow of his head and the view of the urban view.

 

 **Castiel** @angelofthelord

_Living in the light for the darkness._

 

To be honest, he was pretty damn proud of himself for that photo. Before he woke up the next day, his follower count went from 40 to 1500 in less than 48 hours.

 


	2. Choke Cherries

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is written in Dean’s perspective, but the first bit is hints of Sam’s. Enjoy <3

“What about this? Do you think Jess will like this tie?” Sam asked Dean while he stuffed his tie inside his tight, black vest. You could see his body figure from yards away with it. Dean looked up from his desk. 

“Nah. See the thing is, I don’t think Jess likes classy sasquatches.” He scoffed. Sam did his signature bitch face and continued to fiddle with the tie. He looked back at Dean a few times in the mirror, seeing how focused Dean was in his notebook. He finished with his tie and turned to face Dean. 

Dean’s face was screaming with tiredness. His eyes were droopy from the lack of sleep, and whenever he moved his pencil he whole hand moved lazily. Sam knows how much sleep Dean’s been getting, and he feels so guilty about it.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Dean held up his finger to indicate him to stop.

The older Winchester slowly dropped his pencil and looked up to face Sam. 

“I know what you’re going to say, Sammy. You can continue with your fashion work.”

“Just let me speak-” Sam frowned.

“I’m not having it today. Good luck. You and Jess deserve some alone time.” Sam’s expression altered from hopeful to grumpy too quickly. Still a child. He glared at Dean, annoyingly, slapped his arms at his sides and huffed.

“You’re not having  _ what,  _ Dean?” Sam eventually snapped. “Don’t act like we both don’t know how many hookups you’ve had in the last few days. Almost every time I visit you, you’re never home. When I do see you, your tired and sad,” Sam flared his nose.

“You’re doing so much out there  _ expect  _ writing your new book. Isn’t it due by the end of this year or something?” 

Dean softly hissed at the realization and slowly stood up in his seat to explain.

“Okay, I understand,” He didn’t. “But listen, Sammy, guess what, I got half of it done last night on nine cups of coffee. I’m doing great. Besides, don’t you have a client of your own to boss around?”

His little brother’s face smoothed out at the slight mention. 

“Talking about Castiel, he claimed you handled that twitter situation horribly. I think you did awful too. Maybe you need to retry that.” Dean walked back to his desk to sit down. “Are you listening to me?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Dean put his reading glasses back on and shrugged his shoulders. “The whole thing is too weird to talk about. Can’t believe I got dragged into this mess.” Sam just scoffed loudly.

“What’s so funny?” He asked. Sam just shook his head.

“You know, you’re almost the opposite of Castiel, but not at the same time. It’s all so confusing.”

“Well, I guess we were made for each other then.” Dean deadpanned. Sam laughed at the joke and fiddled with the phone in his hand.

“You two would make such a cool duo. I can’t wait until you guys meet.” And with that, he walked away from Dean’s room and into the other.

“One day, Sammy,” Dean said to himself, still distracted in his writing.

***

After hours of forcing himself to puke out creative writing on paper, Dean had finally finished writing the twelfth chapter of his upcoming book. The first book in the series, Within the Woods, was really easy to write and plot. He just took the story from his dreams with Sam and changed their names to Sal and Derek. His second book would be called “Beneath the Bunker.” 

To tell the truth, Dean doesn’t really want to write about these characters anymore.

The ‘dreams’ that inspire Dean, are actually weird, complex nightmares. He dreams of having a worse childhood. A reality where he’s the sword of Michael and Sam is Lucifer’s vessel. One where their mother is taken by a yellow-eyed demon named “Azazel” when Dean was only 4 years old. But recently, his nightmares have been getting less scary, and maybe more… easy?

Where he and Sam are hunters. Hunting demons and eating food that can melt your insides. Just the daily life. With him and Sam are a gravelly-voiced angel and a half-angel, half-demon named Jack. In Dean’s dreams, the angel is faceless. His ‘vessel’ changes into various people he had seen at bars or on the streets. It’s freaks the hell out of Dean. But whatever he does, he cannot help it.

As soon as Dean put his papers in a clean pile, he didn’t hesitate to call his editor so she could get it done and edited quicker.

Dean ringed a few times before Rowena denied his calls. A few moments later, he gets a sloppy text from her and fourteen million photos of her and a small, brown-haired man. In one of the photos, the man is visibly naked. He quickly slides to the bottom to see her texts and avoid seeing any male junks or worse, his editor’s tits.

**_I'm a wee bt bsuy my littlle huntre! Call me inn the morngin_ **

The next one was short, but straight to the point,

**_Met hot lad ;)_ **

And filled the rest of the text space with heart emojis. That would explain some of the attached photos. Dean just shrugged to himself. He closed the messaging app before any more pictures would appear upon his innocent eyes. 

Dean thought of celebrating on his own, so he took a nice, steam shower and for the first time in a long time, conditioned his hair. Coming out of the shower to dry himself, he saw a glimpse of himself in the bathroom sink’s blurry mirror and almost didn’t recognize himself. The happy, hopeful Dean. The one that wasn’t constantly melting in the heat of his own room. The Dean that didn’t drink every night and oversleep until noon every day. That Dean, wasn’t really in him these days. But he could try, just for today. A nice gift, some self-care.

On the corner of his sink, he spotted a small, black comb. He smoothly straightened his hair with it and squirted a pearl of hair gel on his finger, and ran his fingers through the strands to finish it off. After he changed into something decent, he pulled on the nearest leather jacket and left out the door with his wallet and phone to a random bar. Dean got into his car and drove away.

He thought of calling Sam to come celebrate with him, but then he remembered he was busy on a movie date with Jess. He dialled up Benny, but he was working a late shift at the diner. Crowley’s too boring, and Garth was on a honeymoon with his wife Bess. Damn, he kind of missed Garth. He would always hang out with him on the weekends like a best friend, but on the weekdays he goes into full-on agent mode. He’s a great friend to Dean. Responsible, loyal, and friendly.

Dean decides it’s just best if he just celebrates by himself. He’ll just have to take a selfie of himself today so he can post it later and prove to his fans that he was alive, and not a robot that only tweets his problems and posts pictures of cute dogs.

His shiny, black car turned the corner to drive back to his house. On his way back, Dean picked up a heavy bottle of Jack Daniel’s with a bag of Doritos and dropped himself off on top of his living room sofa. Dean toe’d at his shoes until they came off and ripped open the bag of chips like it was his only lifeline. The sound of him popping the cap off the bottle echoed off his walls and goes to take a long drink. He logged on to twitter and let time take him from there. 

As soon as he was logged on, at the very top of his timeline, was a retweeted tweet from a sort of familiar name. The user’s name was just simply  _ Castiel.  _ On the right of the name was the blue verified symbol. Most importantly, where had he heard this name before? 

Then he recalled that Castiel was the other author who Dean’s fans claimed that he had a ‘broken friendship’ with. Sam’s friend. Jess’ best friend. That one author who doesn’t release his full name to the public. Without even thinking about it, Dean clicked on the username and explored his profile. Last he remembered, Castiel didn’t have any social media at all, so this must be his first one.

The only thing his bio said were just three simple words: “ _ live, laugh, lounge.”  _ It didn’t sound like the Castiel he hears from Sam’s stories, but he just goes with it. 

There are only two tweets on his account. His recent tweet was just a reminder on when his new book comes out, but his first tweet was actually a really cool photo of himself behind what seemed to be the view of his window. Most of his face was shadowed out but you could make out his facial structure and a few lashes. 

His younger brother would always crash into Dean’s house with stories about Castiel. He’s always described him as sarcastic and rebellious. But he would rarely describe his psychical features. From what Dean has gathered so far, he imagines Castiel as a small, thin person. But in the tweet, it shows him with wider, muscular shoulders.

Hesitating for a moment, deciding whether or not he should follow him. What if the fans go crazy again? Sam says he’s already made it worse. Dean made his final decision to not follow Castiel or like his posts. He took another quick swig of the drink and shoved more chips into his mouth. When he refreshed his timeline, he somehow found a new tweet by Cas. It was retweeted by Sam. Most importantly, the retweet had  _ Dean’s username _ tagged in it.

He almost spits out all over his laptop screen. His eyes widened.

 

**Castiel** @angelofthelord

_ It doesn’t really help when you call me nicknames I’ve personally never heard before. Really? “Cas”? @impala67 (Thanks for trying, though) _

 

He swallowed the sip and pinched himself to see if it was real. 

Nope, still real. He really did tag him, damn. Was this the start of an actual argument?

So Dean did what was best for him. First, he liked the tweet, then he retweeted it. Personally, Dean thought it was pretty funny.

 

**Dean Winchester** @impala67

_ Maybe you’re right. Anyway, can you bring the milk on your way home, Cas? (Thanks for trying, though.) _

 

Okay, he lied. He regretted the whole retweet in general. It didn’t take long at all for Castiel to reply with an equally sarcastic retweet. 

 

**Castiel** @angelofthelord

_ Real smooth, @impala67. Won’t forget the eggs either, Dean. _

 

Now this, this is a man he can deal with. Proudly, Dean went back to Castiel’s page to click on the following button. It doesn’t matter who says what anymore, he deserved it. 

The whole scenario went back and forth many times within the last few days. Sam had to come over to personally tell him to stop pushing it too far. 

What does he know? He’s just an agent. 

By the end of the week, Dean did stop retweeting his tweets back and forth. The one top comment on most of his tweets was still him though. It took a while for his brother to stop bothering him with texts regarding the whole situation. 

Sam surprised him one day with news. And free food.

“This is for you,” He set a plastic box with cherry pie on the coffee table, “and also this.” Sam grabbed a chair from the kitchen and sat on it backwards, meeting Dean. He gave his younger brother a bewildering look.

“I just wanted to say thanks. You actually helped the whole situation. I was wrong.” Dean couldn’t believe what came out of Sam’s mouth. 

“You’re joking with me.” It came out less as a question and more as a statement.

Sam chuckled, “No, seriously.”

“How?”

“You know how your and Castiel’s fans loathed each other? You kinda proved them wrong with all those smart retweets.” Dean nodded his head up and down in a slight approval.

“That’s cool.” His fingers lingered to the pie box and started after it with a fork.

“Yeah, but we also have a problem for you,” Sam sighs. He stops trying to open the box.

Of course, we have a problem. There’s never good news without bad.

“And it is?” 

“You’ve spawned some newer fans, called ‘Destiel shippers.’”

“That’s not too bad, what does it mean?” He had a full mouth of the pie.

Sam rubbed his finger on his temple and held a long blink.

“You and Castiel. Like together.  _ Together  _ together.”

It took him a few seconds to register what he meant. When it clicked to him, he gasped and then groaned. The pie that was heading down his throat almost came back up.

Dean raised his eyebrows, “Oh my god.” 

“Yeah,” Sam exhales slowly.

“Does Cas know about that?” He asks, hoping he doesn’t.

“About that, he’s the one who spoke about it with me.” 

Dean sucked on his teeth. “I mean, as long as it doesn’t get too much fame.” He laughs nervously.

Sam laughs nervously in addition to him.

“Yup…”

Dean stuffed another bite of the delightful desert down his throat and affectionately patted Sam on the shoulders to break the awkward silence.

“Good luck, buddy. And thanks for the food!”

He unevenly grins at Sam and Sam smiles back.

“Your welcome, Dean.”

He begins to get out of the chair but stops to sit back down.

“Oh, and could you check in with Garth later for anything work-related for you? You need to get busy on something other than stalking my client’s twitter page.” 

Dean guffawed, “Yeah, yeah. I’ll call him when he settles back from his honeymoon. He and Rowena have been having quite a summer so far.”

“Guess all of our editors are getting frisky these days,” 

“Tell me about it.”

“Don’t choke on that cherry pie while on gone,” Sam joked.

“Whatever, bitch.”

“Jerk.” 

Dean went back to ‘stalking’ Castiel’s page again. 

And he did choke on the pie. But only because Castiel had finally tweeted a full face photo of his face. 

The best part was, that was the first time Dean Winchester had ever seen his face before.

His jaw almost hit the floor and almost  _ moaned  _ at the sight.

 

**Castiel** @angelofthelord

_ I can’t tell if my wrinkles are from my lack of sleep, or me growing old. _

 

He didn’t think about what he was typing out.

 

**_Dean Winchester_ ** @impala67

_ Definitely from the lack of sleep. You have nice eyes. _

 

Dean smiled to himself in the dark of the room as he typed it out.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aww, I really wanted to write about Dean's obsession with Castiel's eyes.  
> You're not getting that yet, though. Wait your turn...


	3. Liar Liar, Books On Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know much about editors or bookstores. Ignore how incorrect this is, lmaaoo  
> Enjoy! <3

Sam and Castiel are both slumped outside in the comfort of Sam’s lawn chairs. Coincidentally enough, the pair is currently facing problems involving their brothers.

According to Sam, Dean is attempting to book too many meet and greets at once to get away from his responsibilities. He claims that his older brother isn’t getting anywhere close to finishing the sequel to his first book. 

Which is funny, because Cas hasn’t done anything much either.

Castiel just hums in agreement, even if he  _ actually  _ knows how much writing Dean has done so far. He’s not going to admit how much the two have been talking on twitter.

“Hey, doesn’t Dean have an agent?” Castiel had asked Sam earlier. The younger Winchester scrunched his nose.

“Yeah, but he’s in Iceland on his honeymoon.”

“Oh…” 

They both got back to their devices.

And you know what, Castiel actually considered asking Sam if he could show up at the meet and greet too. So he could see Dean. That would simply be begging though. He’ll find another time.

“So, where’s your editor now?” Sam said, still staring at his flashy screen.

Huh, Castiel actually doesn’t know the answer to that.

“I’m not sure, actually. He’s off with a girl somewhere.” Sam laughs to that. “Some chick named…” Cas’ mind blanks a little.

“Rowena, I think.”

The way Sam’s head quirked to him with raised eyebrows was remarkably funny. 

“Say that again?” Sam stuttered. Castiel coiled his lips to prevent himself from laughing.

“Uhh, Rowena. Red hair? Green eyes?” a smirk bled through his face, “Why? Did you know her?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed visibly. 

“She’s an editor.”

“Okay, that’s cool-”

“-Dean’s editor,” He blurted, looking away from Castiel.

Oh.

That  _ has  _ to be a coincidence. Maybe a misunderstanding. 

But that clearly isn’t why Sam is flushing furiously. He looks back at Castiel and at the patio door behind him a few times.

“She’s um- Rowena is my ex-girlfriend.” There was guilt coming from Castiel that he had ever laughed at his expression.

“I’m guessing you two went far.”

Sam laughs like he’s laughing away the pain. Then he softens at his current thought.

“Yeah, but I’m over it now. I have Jessica.”

“Mm,” Castiel doesn’t know how to respond. “You do love Jess more than anyone I know.” Sam smiles to himself.

“Yeah, Jess is the best thing to ever happen to me.”

“I guess we know where both of our editors have been now.” He tries to lighten the mood.

If not coincidentally, Jess opens the door to the patio with a pan of oatmeal-banana muffins and starts handing them out to the boys. When her hands go down to sit the muffin in Sam’s hands, he kindly seizes them with his. Despite the fact that Castiel already knows what’s going to happen next, he still “Aww”s when his lips brush against her wrist. He almost completely loses it.

“Thank you for these, sweetheart.”

Jessica jokingly pulls her hand away and leans down to kiss his temple. She gives Castiel and Sam a wink before strutting away in her baby pink apron. Castiel is still in awe of how cute the couple is.

“You two are so adorable.”

“Thanks. You will find your one soon.”

“Nah, I got you and Jess. You two are enough. It’s not too bad being a third wheel.”

The other man chuckles. 

“You have Dean.” He teases in a higher mocking voice.

“Oh shut up.” It’s his turn to flush pink. Sam is already laughing.

In his right pocket, his phone starts to vibrate loudly. Sam’s laugh shifts into quiet giggles when he picks up the phone. He takes a sip of the lemonade that’s been sitting in front him.

On the other line, it’s Gabriel, but Cas can barely hear him from the obnoxious background noises. Sounds like a thunderstorm. Gusty wind and rain. His fingers cover the microphone and he whispers to Sam.

“Sorry, I gotta take this.”

He blinks in approval. So Cas walks over to Jess’ barbecue and continues the call there.

“ _ -So here I am, stuck in a rainstorm, in my car, with Rowie. _ ”

“What? I can’t hear you, Gabe!”

“ _ I said, _ ” He yells through the phone, “ _ Rowena and I got kicked out of a restaurant for talking too loud. So I’m sitting in my car with her.” _

“Okay. So?”

He can hear Gabriel sigh. 

_ “So? Don’t you need things to be edited by me?” _

“Yeah, but don’t worry about it-”

Gabriel interrupts him,  _ “-Did you know Rowena is an editor just like me? We met in a Walmart-” _

Castiel got bored of the conversation very quickly. He did what Gabriel told him to do and sent him the copies of his newer poems. 

He considers going back to Sam to gossip more about his old neighbours, but his body is telling him that he’s already stayed for a long period of time and that he needs to head home.

Hazel eyes are watching him as he steps to Sam to say his farewells. 

“You need a ride back? I don’t think your bus comes for another hour.”

He swats his wrist.

“I’ll just walk. Besides, I don’t live that far from here, Don’t sweat it.”

“Castiel, you live on the other side of town. I’m not stupid.”

Caught in the act. 

“I have to get stuff done on the way home. It’s multitasking.”

“That’s not multitasking, Castiel,” Sam tries to hide a smile. “You know, Dean’s coming over for dinner later today,” He hints at Cas.

Castiel  _ nearly  _ said ‘yes’ to that. But he knows how awkward and obvious it can turn out if he does stay with Dean. All that one-sided tension. Yikes.

“I talk to him enough every day, don’t need to see him again,” He lies.

“But you’ve never met him before! It will be the first time, please?” Sam pouts like a little puppy.

Castiel ignores Sam and waves to him while walking backwards into the house.

“Bye, Sam!”

“Bye, Castiel. Have a good night.”

Maybe Jess heard him and Sam speak because when he walks to the front door, she’s leaning against the doorway with a folded up brown bag, looking all smug. She embraces him tightly and shoves the bag against his chest.

“Call me when you get home.”

“Yes, mom.” He sighs with a chuckle. Castiel waved his hand at her one final time. He leaves the block of their house quicker than he anticipated. 

He plugs his earbuds into his iPod and calmly walks through the quiet streets of Lawrence. His mind takes over from there.

Across the bus stop is Missouri Moseley, Sam’s good friend. She grows the most beautiful garden Castiel has ever seen. They share a small smile and she goes back to fertilizing her soil.

Around the corner is Benny’s Diner. Gabriel always asks him to bring him there one day. Benny is super kind to Jess and Castiel. Every time they come to visit, he has a discreet selection of rejected potatoes, especially saved for them. 

Lawrence is a wonderful place with some of his greatest friends. It’s a place where he wouldn’t find many of his fans. It’s not New York or California, and he loves that.

As he’s too busy gazing out to the world, he bumps into someone carrying a large pile of books, and the person drops them all on Castiel. 

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” The young, dark-haired woman spoke rushfully.

“It’s fine, Ma’am. That was my fault for bumping into you first.”

Castiel leans down the pick up the books off the hard, bare sidewalk. As he’s picking them up, he notices how familiar one of her books look. He picks up the hard-cover book and scans the cover before his eyes halt at the name of the author. It sits at the very bottom of the book. Bold in black writing.

**_Within the Woods_ **

**_Dean Winchester_ **

A weird, choking noise slips out of Cas. The lady stares at him like he just threw up. He ignores her and flips through the book, making sure it’s the right one and it’s not his imagination.

“Are you okay?” She makes a disgusted face. It triggers him to blush up to his neck and into his cheeks due to embarrassment.

Castiel ignores her again and flips Dean’s book around so she can see it. Her arm goes to take it from him, but he moves it away. Just a little.

“Did you get this from this place?” He points in the direction of the bookstore.

“Uhh yeah. Can I please have my-” 

Castiel interrupts, “That’s great, thank you!” And drops her copy on her arms.

He admits it was kind of rude, and definitely creepy. It doesn’t bother him again though, because he forgets everything when he sees a copy  _ Within the Woods  _ standing on its spine, facing the window. He assumes it's for advertisement, so he picks it up and almost slams it on the checkout counter.

The store owner seems to be annoyed that he disturbed her while she was on her device. She looks up to Castiel and forces a smile on her face. A strand of umber hair falls over her eyes.

“What I help you with today?” Her voice screams at how bored she is. The way she glares at him distracts him before he comes back to his senses.

“Um, do you have any more copies of this book?” Castiel sputters.

Without a word, the owner leisurely walks to the back room and doesn’t come back for another five minutes. She walks back to Castiel empty-handed.

“Sorry, there are no others left,” The book slides back to Castiel. “That’s the last copy of that book.”

Castiel bites his lip. He flips his wallet out and lays a twenty dollar bill on the counter.

“I’ll take this one.”

She rolls her eyes.

“I.D. please.”

When Castiel gives her the identification, her face brights up. Her gaze switches between him and the card. 

“No way, man. You’re Castiel freakin' Novak!” She sounds like she’s going to explode.

Oh yeah, Cas forgot that he was somewhat famous.

“Oh please, please forgive me! I’ve been so rude to you today,” She sticks her hand for a handshake and grins nervously, “Meg, I’m Meg Masters.”

This is awkward. 

Castiel has a memory of reading her tweet about Dean’s fans. Somehow he remembers her username, and just blurts it out like an idiot. 

“You’re  _ Castielsmasters609? _ ” Cas takes off his sunglasses and watches her as she almost explodes. Then he decides to say more stupid shit like “I read your tweet about Dean the other day.”

Castiel is a total social failure. This is why he never leaves his house.

“Oh, that-”

“It’s fine-” They both say simultaneously. Is it getting hot in here or what?

She moves the strand of hair out of her pink face. Her fingers reach for the twenty dollar bill and she scans the book before handing it Castiel with a nervous smile.

Cas mumbles a thank you and goes to step away, but Meg interrupts.

“Wait,” She gives him the receipt of the book. “There.”

Meg interrupts him once more.

“One more thing, can I ask you a question? If you don’t mind…”

Castiel sighs internally. He turns around to face her.

“Yes?”

“I don’t mean to intrude in your personal life, but…” She hesitates, “Are you just friends with Dean Winchester?”

He saw this coming.

“Um,” He quietly considers taking off from here, “Yeah? We don’t talk much. Does that answer your question?” 

“Yes, sorry.”

Meg rushes to the back room again and Castiel leaves the store confused. There’s a high chance she’s posting that on her social media. 

So he makes another mental note that when he arrives home, he would check his twitter. Just to make sure she posts anything fake about him. Not sure why he should worry though, he’s a celebrity. Rumours are supposed to flutter around. Just like Cas and Dean’s friendship. Is that what they call it? 

***

By the time he gets home, it’s dark. Castiel nukes Sam’s leftover macaroni in the microwave for his supper. White wine is poured into his gray coffee mug, which is mysterious because it’s been resting at the back of the cupboard for centuries.

He waits for his macaroni while doing his daily routine of checking Dean’s twitter page for new content. There’s nothing he can use to make fun of him, so he goes to stand beside the microwave. His notifications are going wild and apparently have been since last night. It doesn’t surprise him though. He’d posted a full portrait of his face online for the world to see. For the first time ever.

It’s normal to see Dean as the top comment to most of his posts. It didn’t bother him too much when he got the notification this morning. 

He’s not sure why his heart almost leaped out of his chest when he found his recent comment. Castiel expected Dean to reply to him with anything but that.

 

**Dean Winchester** @impala67

_ Definitely from the lack of sleep. You have nice eyes. _

 

Suddenly, the microwave’s continuous beeps don’t matter to him anymore. Or the smell of something over-cooking. 

Dean Winchester just complimented him on his eyes. Something he feels insecure about himself. Wow. 

That explains what happened today. Meg had asked him if they were  _ more than friends. _

Fuck.

That’s okay. He just complimented your eyes. Stop freaking out.

Nevermind, he can’t.

That’s why he makes another decision he’s going to resent later.   
  


**Castiel** @angelofthelord

_ That reply just undoubtedly replenished them all. _

 

More awkwardness. Dean probably thinks he’s creepy. It was merely a compliment back, kind of.

It didn’t even take Dean ten seconds to interact with the reply. He’s online.

 

**Dean Winchester** liked your reply

_ That reply just undoubtedly replenished them all. _

 

Wait, isn’t Dean supposed to be at Sam’s house for dinner? 

Then came another reply to replenish his skin.

 

**Dean Winchester** @impala67

_ Aww, I never said I hated your wrinkles. _

 

And that’s the story of how Castiel Novak began yelling loudly into his couch cushions. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4 will be posted soon. Hopefully, I'll get it done before I'm busy again.  
> Comments and Kudos are appreciated ;)


	4. Guardians of the Alternate Reality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes, I'm so sorry this was so short. I needed to get a new perspective done soon.  
> Enjoy <3

Castiel probably thinks he’s creepy. After all, he doesn’t know why he should be. Castiel is freakin _gorgeous._ His face is like a piece that fit into a puzzle he didn’t know he was building.

There has to be like, over thousands of women swooning over him. For a face like that, he can’t trust anyone that doesn’t find Castiel at least somewhat attractive. Who knows, maybe the majority of his fans are only there for that hot mouth!

Steel blue eyes, like an angry ocean that doesn’t want to match the sky. Lips are slightly cracked in the photo, but nothing seems to matter anymore with that shade of pink. He could dream of that mild stubble scraping his-

Jess smacked her hand on the table space in front of him. He jolted out of his mystifying state.

“Dean!” she shouted. “Jeez. Buddy, would you get off that phone? I feel like I have a teenage boy sitting with me.”

Dean played as if those features never crossed his mind today, and set his phone down on the kitchen table. He gave her a grin, showing her that he did what she said.

“Sorry Jess, he’s too busy talking with his crush.” Sam taunted. He hit his younger brother’s ankle with his shoe and Sam yelped.

“He’s not my ‘crush,’ Bigfoot.”

His brother snorted at Dean. In response to Sam, he stuck his tongue out like a young child. Jessica studied them with a baffled expression and shook her head.

“Uhh, yeah. Okay, you guys want more salad?”

Sam smirked to himself as he kindly took the salad bowl from Jess.

“Now that you’re here with us, Dean, what’re you up to these days?”

Dean picked at his tenderloin.

“Not much, honestly. I’ll finish a chapter some days and go out to celebrate alone. Those dreams don’t really come to me anymore,” Dean fabricated.

Jess nodded along to what she thought was the truth and moved on to Sam.

There wasn’t much in tonight’s table talk for him. Dean was mostly focused on checking his phone, but Jess wouldn’t let him. He would answer a few questions now and then so he could seem like he was contributing.

He guzzled down the liquid in his glass and slid his phone in his back pocket.

“I think I’m gonna head home now,” Dean lightly slid his chair back and came around the table to ruffle Sam’s hair and kiss Jess’ temple. “Thanks for the food, guys.”

“It’s still pretty early. Stay for longer, please? I promise I won’t make fun of you.” Sam put on his puppy dog eyes.

“It’s fine. I need to get home soon anyway.”

“You sure you can drive home safe?”

Dean gave Jess a thumbs up.

“See ‘ya later, guys. You two have fun.”

As he was leaving the house, he could still hear bits of their voices. They were talking about something along the lines of ‘the same person’ but it wasn’t too audible.

Everytime Dean’s phone lit up, he tried his best to not swerve off road to check them. Anxiety kept telling him it was Castiel, but Dean didn’t want to get his hopes up.

Wait, hold on, why is Dean obsessing over him so much?

It’s probably just concern. For Castiel. Or there’s a possibility of a crush forming.

Whatever, he doesn’t have time for that.

Dean couldn’t wait until after he was done his bedtime routine. So as soon as he stopped the engine, Dean unlocked his phone and immediately pressed on the notifications button.

 

 **Castiel** liked your tweet

_Aww, I never said I hated your wrinkles._

 

That’s it? Then why was his phone blowing up? Dean ran his hand back his hair.

When Dean swiped down, the new notifications didn’t tell him it was just a liked reply.

That’s when it hit him. But for a second, he didn’t believe it.

Dean gasped, “No freakin way…”

He has never pressed on something quicker. The second he realized that Castiel had direct messaged him gave his butterflies.

 

**_Hey, I know it seems like a really obscure idea, but your brother insisted that we talk on DM instead of us constantly retweeting and replying to each other like a real conversation where everyone can see us._ **

**_It’s weird, I know. He’s probably right though LOL_ **

 

The messages were sent around the time when Dean left the house, meaning Castiel could still be online.

He sends a message back, but accidentally inserts all his enthusiasm in the reply.

 

_Hah! We should definitely._

 

That was too desperate for his liking, fuck!

He then realizes that while he was panicking in the comfort of his car, the sky had darkened and the clouds covered the moon. He rushes out of the vehicle and into his house, almost slipping off one of stairs.

When he finished getting ready for bed, his rotten luck decided to kick in. Just as Dean was about to reach for his phone, it began to play _Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song._ It was his agent calling.

“Oh, please, not right now.”

He briefly swore to himself and had to remind himself of his priorities. Dean picked up the phone, inhaled a deep breath, and changed his voice so it didn’t sound like he was annoyed.

“Hey, Garth! How was the honeymoon?”

“It was very exciting, Dean, and I can’t wait to tell you about it. But I called to talk about you.”

Dean winced, hoping for something good. Garth continued to speak.

“I’m hearing from a few people that you said you wanted to do more meet and greets or signings in the future. Correct?”

Dean answered the question in a monotone.

“Yeah. I do.”

“Great,” Garth paused, “‘I was hoping you’d say that.” He tilted his head in confusion. Honestly, he didn’t have time for suspense.

“Is there anything else?”

“Oh yeah, does it bother you if I book you a signing this week?”

He doesn’t remember if he has anything to get done within the next few days. The reason he’s doing these is to get away from writing in the first place, so he just replies with a “No.”

They, (Dean mostly,) worked the date and time out quickly. He hangs up first and tucks himself into his sheets with his phone.

Castiel hasn’t replied to his message yet. It disappoints Dean a bit, and he has to remind himself that not everyone is free and is he’s probably busy with his family.

Oh no, is Cas currently taken?

Why would he, doesn’t he write about broken love or something? It was probably a bad break-up because Lisa and he have actually been pretty friendly since she divorced him a few years back. No bad blood there.

Not that Castiel’s love life bothers him, of course. It’s not his job to interfere. Why are we even talking about this?

It’s already late at night, so Dean infers that he’s already sleeping. He sets his phone on his bedside table and shuts his eyes, waiting for sleep to take over his body.

But of course, the man with the Alaskan blue eyes and messy dark hair pops up on his phone’s lock screen again. The notification causes the phone to make an inaudible whir, and Dean is opening his phone in a jippy.

Castiel had sent him a photo. In the picture, Castiel is slightly smiling. He’s holding what appears to be a copy of Dean’s book- Within the Woods.

Dean’s heart expands two times larger.

 

**_Found this in a bookstore today. Should I give it a go?_ **

 

_I don’t know, it wouldn’t hurt to have one extra fan._

 

Dean snorts at his own joke. He waits for Castiel’s response.

 

**_Is it actually based on your dreams?_ **

 

_Depends on how you put it._

 

That’s the closest Dean has ever gotten to telling anyone the truth about his ‘dreams.’ He’s not sure if he should continue this conversation any further-

 

**_What does the angel look like?_ **

 

Good question, Cas. Let me ask my brain real quick. Knock, knock, where’s my information.

**_In the story, you didn’t quite describe him clearly._ **

 

_Did you even read the story?_

 

Castiel typed a message and kept re-typing it.

 

**_Not yet, I was just asking for the fans._ **

 

Castiel sends another selfie of himself. This time, he’s pouting.

Dean talks with Castiel for another two hours. They talk about Dean’s obsession with puppies and Cas keeps sending random pictures of himself. Dean doesn’t admit to liking each and every one of them.

Once, Dean brings up his meet and greet schedule. Just to make sure.

 

_-Yeah, I’m sure fans love signings. I’m actually holding one in Lawrence next week._

 

Castiel takes longer to type back.

 

**_I have a few things due next week if that’s what you're implying._ **

 

He must’ve been a mind reader, or Dean is too obvious. Honestly, it feels like Castiel is trying his best to stay away from Dean.

 

**_Sorry, Dean. Maybe another time._ **

 

Dean’s starts acting like an impatient asshole and accidentally lashes out on Cas.

 

_I still can’t believe we haven’t even met yet. We’ve been talking to each other digitally for almost two weeks. Plus, your agent is my brother. We almost live in the same city! What’s stopping you?_

_It's me, isn't it. Am I annoying you that much?_

 

And the absolute idiot that Dean is, causes Castiel to go linger without responding, then leaving offline. That escalated quickly.

 

_Jesus, I’m sorry, Cas. That was random. I understand how busy you are._

 

And he waits and waits. No reply. While in the middle of waiting for Castiel’s message, Dean falls asleep with his back to the headboard and his head dropping into his lap. His phone is still on the bed, unplugged.

When Dean wakes up from his uncomfortable slumber, his back and neck are sore and Cas has still left him on read.

For the first time in a long time, Dean dreamed of the alternate reality. He and Sam were fishing in a lake by an empty field. Standing from above them was their guardian angel. The only difference was that the angel’s face was finally filled in.

He’d recognize that dark brown, sex-hair anywhere. The man looked down at him and gently smiled.

“Hello, Dean.”

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments and Kudos are greatly appreciated, it truly motivates me.  
> Thanks for reading so far!


	5. Exes and Oh's

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am back to give you guys the chapter five you wanted (and probably needed) and I hope you enjoy this chapter. There will hopefully be one more posted within the next 4 days because I am on break thanks to school lol.  
> !!!!! warning for sexual content near the end of the chapter if you don't want that ;)  
> ENJOY!

The face of the angel is supposed to change every dream (at least from what he remembers,) but Castiel’s face is still glued on there and doesn’t want to go away. He doesn’t hate it, of course, Dean is actually enjoying it. It’s just getting  _ a wee bit  _ weird for him at times.

No, but seriously, how do you tell anyone that they are the face of a creepy dude that fuels his writing juice? _“Hey man, you keep jumping in my sleep with a giant trenchcoat and it seems to be fixing my writer’s block. I also think you’re hot ‘cause every morning I wake up with a no-homo boner. We’re cool though, right?”_

Oh yeah, you heard it right. These feelings of lust are certainly getting stronger. Some are new. Just as new as the copy of Cas’ first book he purposely bought yesterday after the small breakdown he had in his empty bathtub. He really does miss him a lot, and somewhere in America, Cas might be having the time of his life right now.

To sugar-coat it off, Castiel hasn’t texted back in five days, and Dean’s book signing is tomorrow. That little devil on his left shoulder is quietly telling him that Castiel might arrive at his meet and greet to surprise him. They might finally meet and they can become the best of friends, (because he obviously doesn’t feel the same about him.)

Things don’t always go the way you want it to be, sometimes they go beyond your expectations. For Dean, they mostly range from going lower and going EVEN lower.

Dean is in the middle of folding the laundry he’s folded seven times already when the soft vibration of his phone is heard from the room beside him. He automatically assumes it’s his brother so Dean just ignores it. Then it starts to feel like there’s an earthquake going on in his bedroom. 

Yet again, he doesn’t want to talk to his brother. Go fish?

The buzzing begins to completely piss him off, so while it’s causing a natural disaster he picks it up and quietly curses as he accepts the call. Bad news, it’s not Sam.

“Hello?” replies a taut, but deep, voice, “Is this Dean Winchester?”

“The one who pays for everything in this shithole, yeah,” Dean mocks, “Who’s this?” 

Dean removes the phone from his ear to look at the caller I.D., but it’s none he seems to be familiar with. It’s not until the caller says their next words that he almost gasps aloud.

“Oh my gosh, I thought I was calling the wrong number,” Castiel settled. “Imagine that.”

There was a beat of silence. 

“C-Cas?” Dean tried before assuming.

He couldn’t tell if Castiel audibly winced or just breathed like a normal human.

“Dean, I’m so sorry for-- I mean I tried to call, but my damn phone-- listen, I’m-” Castiel gabbled immensely but briefly stopped and sighed. Dean raised an eyebrow and checked to see if he disconnected the call.

“Cas? Cas, buddy. Take a breath, what are you in a rush about?” Castiel’s heavy breathing was still detectable. He wanted to speak to him face-to-face so badly. “Start from the beginning, man.”

“God, Dean, my phone! It broke the day after you last texted me. I tried to get to you through twitter, but I didn’t have my-” Cas began to stammer once again, but he picked up after taking another breath, “I’m sorry about everything I said.”

Dean was  _ not  _ ready for this conversation. And to be honest, he probably should’ve been. It’s been a while.

He shut his eyes and rubbed at his temples, “Cas, it’s fine. It wasn’t you, It was me.”

“What?” Dean resisted the urge to bang his own head on the dresser in front of him.

“Fuck, I mean- I was the one being an ass to you, you don’t have to apologize. I was in a bad mood and I swear I didn’t mean anything bad I said.” 

Castiel did not instantly reply back. There were a beep and a voice behind his phone.

“I gotta go, Dean. I’m sorry, I’ll call later-”

“Hey-” and Castiel disconnected the call.

Dean’s laundry can go unfolded for another day.

***

Like his week could’ve gone any weirder, he woke up to the sound of eggs crackling on his stove as early as six in the morning. His mouth tasted like the inside of a dead rat and his back hurt like hell. He strongly wishes that it isn’t some psychopath that went through his lock and decided to make something for their own hungry tummy, but he can hear whispers from different people.

The voices are whispering the strangest things, like “Where does this groundhog keep his pepper?” and, “Maybe if you cut them like  _ this  _ you would be able to eat them without nearly choking!”

When he walks into his kitchen he’s instantly hit with the whiff of burning bacon and strong coffee. That, plus his brother, his sister-in-law, and his editor-slash-publisher. All staring at Dean like deers in headlights.

“What the fuck are you doing in my kitchen?”

Rowena’s shoulders drop down from her disturbance, goes back to slicing her sausages and smirks like an idiot while Sam and Jess glance at each other and merely shrug.

“I ran out of milk and she needed to use the bathroom,” deadpans Sam. Jess goes back to flipping her eggs. “Oh, and where do you keep your condiments? Please don’t tell me you don’t have any.”

Dean pinched his nose. He peeked at the door.

“How the hell did you get in?” 

Sam eyed his knife at Dean like an upset parent, “Watch your mouth, Dean. We just wanted to surprise you on your four-hundred-thirty-third book signing.”

“Bullshit.” Sam rolled his eyes at the ceiling.

“Oh, Deanie, don’t you understand? We are very excited.”

“Cut the crap, Rowena. For what?” Dean trotted over to the plate of overcooked bacon and bit into one.

Rowena gently set the knife down on the board and moved to face Dean. She flipped her red curls back. Her grin spread from one cheek to the other.

“Oh you clueless idiot,” Rowena sighed, still beaming, “I’m finally getting married, and you’ll be meeting him very soon!” 

The bacon that was going down his throat switched directions. He blinked at her in disbelief. Rowena broke her smile and patted him on the back before strutting to her coat on the couch. She slid it on and blew a nimble kiss to Dean.

“I must leave early. I would have to look pretty for my dear fiancé today. Goodbye, boys,” Rowena smiled at Jess, “Goodbye, Jessica.”

He turned to stare at his family.

“‘She serious? Because she better be.” He gestured to sink, full of dirty plates and forks.

“I hope so. Otherwise, you have the right to kick us out right now.” Jessica slid the pan back and switched the burner off.

“Not yet, guys. Clean the mountain you created first.” 

Dean squinted his eyes at the clock and then at Sam and Jess. The fact that they crashed his kitchen this early in the morning still doesn’t make any sense. Those soon-to-be dishes already look disastrous.

“Couldn’t you wait to make me breakfast until after the whole neighbourhood’s awake? I feel like Sam farted in my mouth after his bean burrito craving time, it’s that early. I swear, It’s the devil’s spawn. I assumed everything from Taco Bell is the same as dog food.”

“I have to comfort him during his sweaty, sad days on the toilet. The tears are starting to get to me,” Jess added, visible that she was trying her hardest to prevent herself from laughing.

Sam set free to his trademark bitch face and glared at Dean.

“Shut up. Dean, just get dressed for the day. We’re driving you there at ‘8,” Sam dropped the oven door open and pulled on oven mitts. He pointed a finger at Dean once more before pulling his muffins out, “and please wear something nice for once, or I’ll have to take you out shopping.”

“Whatever,” He mumbles before shutting the bathroom door with a little slam.

Dean began the shower and gradually arched his back when the hot, slick water sprayed him from above. His showers are always short and to the point; rinse, soap, rinse.

It’s also the time to quickly think about every wrong decision he might make today, (as always.)

He wonders about how Castiel is doing, and why he left the phone so quickly. He thinks about the possibility of them meeting in real life one day. It wouldn’t hurt, so why Castiel always avoid him? 

Maybe Castiel isn’t avoiding him and is just busy. Dean’s an idiot, so it’s a possibility.

Dean imagines seeing his bright eyes for the first time. Hearing the gentle grumble from his throat. The soft, messy, stuck-up hair. He imagines running his fingers through it and cradling his jaw. Pressing his mouth against his smooth- oh,  _ oh. _

Dean peers down to his genitals with surprise, and with a tinge of disappointment. Great job, Dean. 

Without even thinking twice, his palm reaches down for his jerked, burning cock. He begins to palm at it, then gradually starts with simple strokes. He imagines Castiel peeking at him through his dark eyelashes from below.

“Cas, I need-” He chokes to fictional Castiel.

His eyelids fall shut and a punched out  _ moan  _ is unleashed from his dirty lips. Dean starts to palm at the tip, rubbing away any pre-come. 

Dean’s other hand finds its way to his hard, flushed nipples and only a brush at it is needed to bring him close. 

And like the beautiful day he mentioned he was having, his cock-block brother comes forth and bangs at the bathroom door with his whole fist. 

“Fuck!” Dean punches the shower tile in front of him.

“Dean? Are you ever coming out of there?... Dean?”

The younger Winchester could cry at his loss.

“Yeah, yeah, I was just taking a spa day,” He jokes while internally dying.

“Don’t take too long,” and Sam is walking away like nothing.

Dean frowns down at his now limp dick. Talk about mood-killer.

***

The ride to the event is disastrous.

Sam and Rowena have arguments over nothing. Jess is constantly attempting to distract them so the group won’t die in a tragic car crash, but Rowena won’t give up the fight and keeps on reminding Sam of the mistakes he did while they did together. Jess, thankfully, is calm. Thank god for Jess, she’s a godsend.

Dean is still internally dead. The bacon from that morning has ruined his insides and considers suing whoever made them in the first place. He’s holding on to his coffee like a lifeline. 

The music in the car sucked, but he didn’t feel like pushing it to Sam today.

When Sam stops the car, they scramble out the doors like naughty mice and Dean immediately rushes to the men’s restroom.

Dean exits the restroom to three girls and a camera in his face.

May his day get better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not an exciting ending, I know. Sorry about that. DEAN AND CAS WILL MEET SOOOONN!  
> kudos and comments are very appreciated and they make me super happy. it actually motivates me a TON <33


	6. Meet and Leave

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just read *wink wink* (I promise it's nothing disappointing.) (Well that depends on what you think.)

Castiel shut his front door with a slam, creating stares from outside. 

“Are you kidding me? You don’t answer or help with any of the work I send to you for weeks and now you’re getting _married_?!”

Castiel can distantly hear a female’s soft, lusty giggle from his brother’s side of the line.

He throws the paper bag of ripe tomatoes on the island, but they fall off the edge anyway. He angrily stomps his way into the bedroom.

“Chill out, Cassie. Aren’t you supposed to be happy for me or something?” Castiel does his best to not choke him through the phone.

He gives a deep sigh of disapproval, “Okay, fine. say if I was, will you please tell me where the hell you are right now? I promise I won’t throw you off a building,” 

“Since you asked nicely,” he paused, “I’ll give you a hint.”

“No time for that, Gabriel.”

“Actually, I think you should just ask your kind boyfriend Dean then,” he said with a tsk-tsk. Castiel frowned at the words.

“What?” he spits out, of all the questions going through his mind.

There isn’t an immediate reply back but when he goes to disconnect the call, Castiel can hear Sam’s heavy tone. Then Sam takes the phone from Gabe.

“Castiel! I’m so sorry about him. How are you?” His words are slightly slurred, but not too much.

“Sam?” 

“Yeah, that’s me. Your idiot brother is currently with us, don’t worry him. We can keep an eye on him”

“Sam, where the hell are you right now?”

Sam hesitates before responding with the given address, and time isn’t wasted before Cas is pulling his jeans back on and storming out of the apartment.

Farewell, dear fresh tomatoes.

***

It doesn’t take Castiel an excessive amount of time to get to the event. He takes a cab and possibly pays the driver more money, but both choose not to elaborate on it.

It’s funny, really. He used to despise his older brother and wanted to be as far away as possible from him. But the bad decisions he’s presently forging to himself is enough to tick his family off for eight years. Yeah, he’s a lifesaver, and Gabe owes him big time.

He bursts through the doors and expects to see rows of chairs, wedding decorations, and a priest, but as soon as he’s in the building there is a surprisingly long banner hung up and painted with Dean’s name and face. Castiel gulps at the sight.

There isn’t a single living being in the hotel lobby, besides the receptionist and a few passing workers. The room is fairly loud though, and is filled with the faint sound of a popular song that everyone hears on the radio at least twice a day. He looks around a bit before someone clears their throat behind him and taps him on the shoulder.

Jess grins at him “Hey, Castiel. Wasn’t expecting you here of all places.”

The confusion from Castiel’s face dissolves into a smirk and he notices Jessica’s elbow slide behind the girl beside her’s neck. Cas marginally recognizes her face and cinnabar-coloured hair from somewhere. He gives her a mutual smile and a small nod.

The girl raises her eyebrows at him and he swears that she gives him a quick once-over with her eyes.

“Uhh,” Castiel switches his vision towards Jess, glancing at the girl once, “Hi.”

Now it’s Jessica’s turn to raise eyebrows. She points her thumb lazily at the red-head.

“This is Rowena, in case you were wondering.”

The name almost instantly clicks in his head and realizes that the woman in front of him is his possible future sister-in-law. He sticks out his hand for her to shake.

“Oh, Hello. I am Castiel.”

She falters before shaking the hand back and to some degree, tilts her head.

“Say, do you have a brother named Gabe?”

Yep, that’s the bride.

“In fact, I do. You’re getting married to him if I’m correct?” This is when Rowena grins at him and squeezes his hand harder.

“You sure don’t look like him much, but he’s mentioned you.”

“I’d doubt it.”

Jessica interrupts them, “Nice chat, ladies, but seriously, what are you up to, Cas?”

Castiel looks back at the banner with Dean’s name in bold, “Coincidentally, looking for Gabriel himself. Looks like I found the whole group instead.”

“Well if you’re looking for Gabe, he’s inside the event room with Sam and Dean-”

Castiel’s whole world stops and his eyes widen as he puts the puzzle pieces together.

(Just kidding, that’s not what happened.)

Instead, Sam walks into the lobby right at the mention of his name and jokingly shoves Castiel forwards. He trips on his feet and stabilizes himself, at the cost of almost pushing a tiny Jessica back too.

“Woah, Sam. Use your feet, honey,” Jess says.

Sam giggles a bit and hugs Castiel from behind. It honestly feels like a tall, man-like, rapunzel squeezing the juice of you. Rowena expresses a face of empathy.

“So do we all know one another in some crazy way?”

“Mhm!” Sam says with joy, practically jumping on his heels, “I’m Castiel’s agent, Jess is besties with Castiel, I’m Jess’ fiance, Gabriel is his brother, and-”

“Slow down there, Buster, save some air for the rest of us.” Sam pouts at Jessica and removes his hands from Castiel to move around them and do the same thing to poor Jess. 

Jessica smiles at Sam and gently wraps her fingers around his, “Sorry guys, he’s a  _ really  _ happy drunk sometimes.”

“I’m glad I don’t see this side that often,” Castiel says under his breath as a joke. He’s pretty sure Rowena heard that hence the side eye and smirk.

“Well, Castiel, you missed the book reading from Dean-”

He forgot about that. Castiel genuinely wishes that he was more prepared for this moment.

“-but you didn’t miss the book signing. You can find Gabe there. Come on, we don’t bite.”

Castiel stared at the area around him. “Thanks, Jess. I just- I didn’t really come here for Dean. I urgently needed to speak with Gabe just once and then you guys can have a good night.”

He skipped the part where he was afraid and nervous about seeing him for the first time. Sure, he might totally regret this a day from now, but it’s now or never (and Cas chooses ‘never’)

“Aww, I’m sure Dean will be more than happy to see you. It’s been a while since you guys met, right?”

_ Thanks for rubbing it in, buddy. _

“Uh, no thanks, I just need Gabe…”

Jess did not let Castiel speak another word after that and he was subconsciously led (or dragged?) to a green room where his brother sat at a round table filled with delicious sweets. He was whispering to a cook, probably about an order about adding more filling to the pie.

Typical Gabriel.

The editor wasn’t immediately aware of the group standing by the door. When he was, Gabriel rose out of his chair dramatically, ignoring the worker behind him, and bowed to the group. He hopped over to Rowena first and pecked her cheek. Rowena blushed furiously but tried her best to hide it.

“Hello again, beautiful,” Gabe whistled.

Rowena shyly ducked her head, “Hello, Gabe.”

The cook walked out of the room with the creampie.

Gabriel humorously slapped Castiel’s shoulder and grinned at his expression.

“And what a surprise seeing you here, little bro!”

The heat inside Castiel’s head that had once cooled seeing his friends had suddenly come back hotter. Castiel’s brows scrunched together in annoyance. Maybe he’s moody because of his missing morning coffee.

Man, his back is really starting to hurt right now.

Jess reads his mind and chooses to speak for Castiel.

“Gabe, Castiel is here to speak to you on important terms.”

Gabe sneered like the cat that ate the canary, as he knew exactly why Cas was here. At this point, he doesn’t even take in the fact that Dean is sitting somewhere in the same building as him. His brother is only three minutes away from completely ticking him off.

“Oh really? That’s interesting. I wonder why.”

“Cut the shit, Gabe. You know exactly why I’m here.”

Gabriel starts to take note of Cas’ angry mask and his expression turns a bit more serious. He silently nods to the others, telling them to leave them both alone for a while, and they depart to the other side of the room. Sam bee-lines for the apple caramel dip first.

Castiel takes a deep breath in. Gabriel begins to speak with another sassy remark, but Cas stops him with a shouted whisper.

“Oh shut up, Gabe. You take a vacation away from us for only a few days, and suddenly you have the need to start a  _ family?  _ Couldn’t you have waited until I myself have met her?”

“Okay, first, I am not going to make a family just yet, but-”

“That is not the point!”

Gabe raises both hands to seem innocent. 

“Gabriel, listen, I’m happy for you. But you need to seriously stop taking stuff lightly. You just met this girl, do you even know her parents?”

The older Novak winces and looks behind his shoulder to check on Rowena.

He gives Cas a flash of teeth, “I met her sister the other day, and her cousin seems pretty okay.”

Castiel deeply sighs. 

“You know what? Forget that. Could you please just focus on getting my book somewhere? Advice would be pretty helpful right now.”

Gabriel pursed his lips in response.

He gives up on speaking with his brother and runs a hand through his untidy hair.

Gabriel switches the topic and leans into Castiel’s space, whispering, “Did you know what I meant by ‘asking your boyfriend Dean?’”

Castiel shivers and jumps back at the name. He gives his brother a grumpy look.

“Sorry?” Cas said crossly.

“Dean. Your boyfriend,” He repeats with an unreadable expression.

“Yeah, I got that part. He isn’t my boyfriend. What about him, though?”

“He’s in,” Gabriel jabs a finger sideways to the wall, “that room right now. Hey, did you know he likes cherry pie over apple? Unbelievable.”

Castiel avoids the last sentence, despite the fact he already knows about the pie. He focuses on the wall, distantly hearing the loud noises from behind it. Gabriel snaps his fingers in his face.

“How ‘bout we go take a trip to visit him? I’m sure he’s awaiting you-”

“No!” Castiel almost too quickly, “I mean, uhh..” Gabe frowns.

This time, he doesn’t have a response back.

What an idiot he really is. Being scared of someone, by any means, has a teeny crush on. And after the whole conversation that morning, he gets goosebumps.

It’s stupid, he knows.

He walks away from Gabe, ending their conversation, and confronts Rowena and Jess. 

“Well, it was nice meeting you, Rowena. I’m gonna head back now. I did what I needed to do.”

He offers to shake hands with Rowena again. “I’m happy for the both of you.”

Rowena softly laughs and shakes his hand back once more, then leans in to give him a one-armed hug.

She whispers against his cheek.“Thank you, Castiel. I was worried there. I’ll make sure he gets his work done for you.”

Huh, that sounded ominous.

Castiel gawks at Rowena, but she doesn’t seem to notice. Jessica eyes Gabe trailing to them.

“So, I’m guessing you’re not staying longer?” Castiel shrugs.

“Nah-”

“Not even for Dean?” Jess and Gabriel say simultaneously. Castiel groans. He swats at the three as they depart.

“Another time, guys.” Gabriel smacks him in the back again and walks right into the kitchen.

He goes to pick out his phone from his pocket, but it doesn’t seem to be there. Castiel pats at his sides repeatedly. Must’ve left it in the laundry room.

He’s making his way to the lobby and almost groans at his luck. The phone is innocently sitting by the doors, unaware of anything that could happen to it. Castiel bends over to pick it up and bangs his head on the long handles. 

Castiel rubbed at his head, and to the wonderful day Cas is having, he unintentionally gasps aloud when he first hears the familiar soft grumble nearing up behind him. 

_ Oh no, no no no! I wasn’t ready! _

Not knowing if he noticed Cas yet or not, he bolted up for the handle, pulling at it as rapidly as he could. The doors would not open.

The other man reached him unknowingly before the time and chuckled, tenderly nudging Castiel aside and pushing force to the door for him. Cas didn’t look back at his face from both embarrassment and awkwardness.

“I made that same mistake three times before I finally got it, so your not alone,” Dean softly laughed. He pats Castiel’s coat a few times, halting a little longer on the last touch, and stepped back.

Castiel’s heart fluttered at the sweet sound of his laugh. 

Dean began to walk away and Castiel released a sigh of relief.

“Thank you, Dean,” He spoke quietly. To some extent, Dean managed to hear him.

Before he could catch himself over his personal mistake, the other man’s footsteps staggered. 

“Cas?” Dean breathed. It was more of a statement than a question. Castiel debated on letting go of the door handle.

He nervously twisted his upper half to glance at Dean. Silence fell over between the two. Castiel gave an awkward smile to Dean.

_ Nice try, genius. _

It triggered something in Dean, as he blinked numerous times at Cas before running up to him. They hesitated on what to do with their hands.

Dean was the first to break the silence.

“Holy crap, Cas,” Dean shook his head in disbelief, “I’m finally seeing you in real life!”

“Yep,” Castiel’s voice cracked.

Dean rested his hands on Cas’ shoulders and his eyes took in the view. Dean slowly breathed out and slid his fingers down his muscles.

When Dean conceived how odd he thought he was being, and the face that Castiel was silently giving him (which he guessed was disgust,) he let go as if he touched something slimy.

“Sorry… It might be weird for you. I was kinda waiting for this moment.” Castiel’s eyes widened.

_ Oh my god, he was thinking of you! Stay calm, Castiel! Stay calm! _

Dean, realizing what he said again, waved his hands in defence, “Oh no, sorry, I swear I’m not creepy!”

Castiel didn’t tell him how he felt the same.

He shut his mouth he didn’t know was open and they both shared another awkward laugh. There was a little bubble of happiness between the two.

“Can I.. can I hug you, man?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLLLYY! I'm so glad they met. We just gotta get through another stage.
> 
> If you cannot tell, Yes, Castiel /IS/ happy about seeing Dean. He feels happy now, but he was certainly really nervous before. He just needs to leave the house more often.
> 
> And about updates, I have my christmas break coming very soon, so I will try my absolute best to get at least TWO chapters done during that time. Do not fear, you will see the gays very soon.
> 
> Thank you for reading this chapter, kudos and comments are VERY appreciated. They motivate me a lot <3333


	7. Under the Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, I promised two chapters within this Christmas break and I gave one half-way through. I will try to get another chapter in by the end of January, but I don't promise. (I don't currently have a beta reader, so I just have to be very careful and double-check everything. If there's still mistakes, my apologies)
> 
> I worked pretty hard on this chapter, I hope you enjoy it ;)

His fans are right; Cameras certainly do not capture him correctly.

The exact moment Castiel’s blues met his greens, Dean honestly didn’t know what to do, let alone say. His throat blocked up and nothing but a squeak wanted to leave.

The lobby’s dim lights cast a light shadow on his features. The first thing he takes in about Castiel’s features is his earth-shattering, steel blue eyes. They glimmer at Dean, deceiving every picture he’s ever seen or received from anyone.

Dean and Cas both sneakily release a shaky sigh under their breath as they silently give each other obvious once-overs. Dean starts a small mutual laugh between the two, just to kick at the elephant in the room, and Castiel gradually joins him. The other man lowered his head with a smirk and dug his fingers into his weathered jacket pockets.

Dean tilted his head to drag Castiel’s eyes back to his, “Can I… can I hug you, man?”

“Uh-”

“I mean, it’s just-”

“Sure?” Castiel replied with a smile tugging at his lips.

Castiel’s didn’t respond with a proper sentence, but it was enough to signal approval for the both of them.

The embrace didn’t last long at all, but it felt like an eternity in each other’s arms. Their warm bodies met in the middle after Dean took in Cas. He gently cloaked his triceps over Castiel’s broad shoulders. He shut his eyes and discovered the wholesome scent that was Cas.

Castiel was the first to kindly push him off.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to create a scene”

Dean glanced at the emptiness of the lobby. He scratched his head.

“Oh,” Dean breathed out, mouth stuck as an ‘O.” He turned back to Castiel, giving him a rueful smile.

“It’s just really weird- you know.. cool- seeing you here right now. I kinda... least expected you here, of all places,” Castiel raised a brow. “Don’t you live in Lawrence or something?”

Castiel sighed and suppressed another shaky laugh, “Yes, I was merely looking for my brother. Then I was led to this location.” Castiel nods to the humongous banner above.

He notices Castiel glare at the sign, “What, are you not used to having your face and name plastered on things?” Dean jokes.

Castiel slowly shakes his head, “No, actually, I don’t do conventions or signings,” It rings a bell and Dean remembers reading it on the internet before, “and the public doesn’t know of my full name yet.”

“Ah.”

They both look around the lobby, avoiding the other’s eyes. No one speaks for a few seconds, probably thinking about what to say. Dean inhales, ready to speak, but Castiel beats him to it.

“About this morning-”

“-Do you want to get coffee sometime?” Cas and Dean speak at the same time.

Castiel playfully bites his tongue and sways the back of his hands towards Dean. It’s a cute gesture, but he chooses not to comment on it. Dean barely manages to stifle his blush.

“Sorry, you go first,” Dean apologizes.

“No, no. I’d like to hear yours first,” there is a hint of sass hidden in his words.

“I- uh- would you mind coming out for coffee-”

At that moment, Sam chooses to walk in on them. He squints his eyes, attempting to grasp the vision in front of him.

“Is that the infamous Dean, standing with the avenging angel, Castiel Novak?” He shouts proudly.

When he deciphers that it is, Sam lights up and dashes to them to push their heads in a breath-taking (literally) hug with his forearms. After he let’s go, he gives Dean a nuggie to the top of his head.

“Dear god, Castiel, look who you ran into,” Sam grins.

“Actually, I met just him a few minutes ago.”

“Either way, Isn’t this neat!” He switches to Cas, “Did you know he talks about you all the time?”

Dean pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned Sam’s name. Sam beamed innocently. Then he giggles.

That motherfucker is _at least_ half-sober.

“Oh really?” Cas didn’t sound surprised, but was, by the looks of it, presumably going to use that on Dean in the future.

“Yup!” Sam responded boastfully, then burped aloud, “Man, did you know this place makes great fondant? Best I’ve tasted.”

“That’s..interesting?”

“Oh, and about Dean, this one time at dinner, Dean would not stop texting-”

Dean interrupted their conversation before he could get any more embarrassed and shoved Sam back, “That’s enough sweet-talk, Sam. I’ll see you later.”

Sam put on a pouty face. His dimples appeared from an angle, suppressing a sneaky grin, “But-”

Dean waved him away before Sam could disclose something weird, like his social security number.

“Nice speaking to you. Shoo!”

Sam motioned two fingers between the two and spoke in a loud voice as he walked away, “When I’m sober enough, I’ll finish embarrassing you!”

“Whatever.”

They waited silently for the mop of brown hair to disappear from the corner, then they both turned to face each other.

Castiel nudged him on the shoulder. “What were you saying before? Something about coffee?”

Cas is probably never gonna let that go.

“Oh… yeah. I was just wondering- you don’t have to, but-” Dean scratched at his brow, trying to find his words, “now that we’ve met, you know…”

“Go out for coffee, you said?”

“Yeah! That.”

Castiel’s face was blank, his eyes were squinted in a curved line and a brow tilted.

Dean forcibly shared the same expression, just slightly blushing, until Castiel broke his and shook his head, visibly smiling.

“What?”

Castiel stopped, “Nothing, really. Just this whole,” He gestured around him with his wrist, “scene and scenario. Really adds a touch to it.”

Dean huffed a surprised, confused laugh.

“So are you up for it?”

Castiel lent out his hand professionally, “Definitely,” Dean slowly grasped his cool palm and shook it. “I’ll text you tonight.”

***

Dean went home feeling higher than ever on adrenaline. Not sure if it was the tropical guava cake that Sam brought back clueless or the exciting text that he was waiting for. Either way, that’s sweet.

Dean had no idea how they got through all that at first. The pair were just about frightened with the other, unaware of the surprise meeting. They stammered and stuttered, and were bathed in blush. In the movies, the first meetings were always smooth. The characters would go through with flirts like bullet trains.

Not everyone is given a script to act.

He thinks about how Castiel was profoundly confident nearing the end, speaking brightly after hearing Dean ask him out for coffee. Then he tries to avoid the feeling of Castiel trying to leave without saying “Hi” to Dean. At least, that’s what he assumed.

If Castiel didn’t want to go with Dean he would’ve mentioned it earlier. He wouldn’t just keep some friendship if he had the chance to break it. Dean internally sighed of relief.

To pass the time, Dean shuffled through the contents of fan mail that were given to him today. Many of which made Dean grin. A young girl by the name of Kris had given him a cozy, swamp green, wool sweater that seemed to be hand-knitted. When he had signed her book, she whispered to him and called him an ‘old man.’

A few fans had given him thick stacks of scripts to sign, telling him they were movie scripts that they had written with an open heart. That made Dean grin to himself. Dean has always had a soft spot for fan works, whether it be large paintings or mini poems.

A gift he had received multiple copies of were paper hearts, but on either side, it was green cardstock or light blue. Dean accepts that It was probably something the fans had worked on together on social media. He attempted to open it from the middle to see if a message was hidden, but to his effect, it had only created a small split.

“Well, damn,” He whispered to himself. He was honestly baffled.

***

If from what Dean remembered was correct, _Cas_ was going to text him first. He woke up the next day with no text from Castiel (Which was fine, Dean understands how busy writers can be,) but every text and fuzzy bee video that Dean sent him through text wasn't even opened or seen by him. He let it go, but his hand lingered to his phone every minute.

He got no writing done that day.

The day after, Dean still hadn’t gotten a single text back and Castiel hadn’t even looked at them. That’s when he started getting unnecessarily concerned. Something wasn’t right.

Dean knew it wasn’t his business to interfere with Castiel’s life, he couldn’t help himself. He checked through Castiel’s social media to see if he’s been somewhat active, but the last interaction was three days ago when he retweeted another author’s tweet, the day Dean had made an oopsie and angered Castiel.

Without hesitation, Dean dialled up Jess first to ask about Castiel, but Sam picked up instead.

“Hello?” Sam sounded groggy, voice hoarse as if he had just woke up.

“Sam? Where’s Jess?” He peeked at the clock behind him, “It’s quarter ‘till noon- are you sleeping?”

“I had other plans,” Sam mutters, clearly annoyed. Dean squints his eyes to figure it out but doesn’t try too hard before he’s scrubbing at his brain.

“Aw man, that’s gross.”

Sam groaned and raised his voice, “What do you need?”

“Have you spoken to Cas recently?”

Sam doesn’t respond immediately, “No, why?”

“He hasn’t responded to anything I’ve sent him.”

Sam makes it sound like Dean’s words are senseless, “And? Maybe he’s busy.”

“Sam, he hasn’t seen _anything_ I’ve sent him. Cas hasn’t been active on Twitter at all the past couple of days.”

“Dean,” he dragged out, “he’ll be fine.”

“Man, I’m worried about this. Can you call him?”

“Trust me on this-”

“Dude, Please? Maybe he likes you better and he’ll answer yours.”

Sam sighed, “Just go to his house then, since you’re so worried about him.”

Dean gulped. Was he kidding? His tone didn’t say so.

“Serious?” Dean said too quickly.

“Just knock at his door and see if he’s home. He doesn’t live that far, ya know.”

He doesn’t remember the route to his brother’s house, let alone knowing where Cas lives.

His brother reads his mind. “I’ll text you the address or something later.”

“Thanks?” Dean huffed, his face red.

“Oh, and Dean?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t call us for the next two hours.” And he disconnects.

As he anticipates for his brother’s texts, he double checks to see if Castiel has responded at all. His messages are still unseen, so he rummages through his laundry basket looking for a tee with jeans, finally deciding to check on him. He takes a quick glance at the mirror, running a brisk hand by his hair.

For whatever reason, it doesn’t seem to bother Dean anymore that he’s intruding. Something is bothering him.

Dean snatches his phone off his bed and he’s out the door without his coat.

Whereas he steps outside the building, there’s a tremendous amount of snowfall piled outside. He debates to himself whether he should take the time to wipe off his baby with care, but looking back at his phone he decides to not take it slow.

After he’s removed most of the flurry with his sleeve, Dean checks the address once more before flooring whose ever grocery bag was sitting on the side of the road.

***

On his way to the apartment, Dean had phoned up Gabriel and Rowena in despair, querying them if they have talked to Castiel recently. Rowena had said the same thing as Gabe; “He was with you last, shouldn’t you know?”

All for almost getting pulled over. Yikes.

His mind collided with the different possible scenarios. With each, his pace quickened. He didn’t know if the flight of stairs he was taking was even correct.

When he made it up, Dean let out a focused breath and set his ear to the door, inspecting for any nearby living noises.

Dean knocked once. He stood for 30 seconds.

No answer.

Dean carefully beat the door with his fists, but not too loudly to alarm anyone around. He stood for exactly one minute.

No answer.

“Hello?” Dean rang the doorbell once. “Cas?”

Maybe he wasn’t home.

An elderly woman noticed him and spoke in a weak, but audible voice from across the hall, “Oh he’s in there for sure. Hasn’t left his home at noon like the usual,” and then left inside her apartment without another word.

Dean stood there staring back at the door where she had disappeared to.

So nobody has heard from him since Wednesday… Did he banish? Surely he would’ve told _someone_ where he was going.

God, he was getting panicky.

At a careless attempt, he scanned the hallway with a turn of his skull and tried for the doorknob. It didn’t move. His eyes stopped at the numbers under the handle. Ah, a code system. Dean grabbed for his phone and started urgently texting Sam.

_He’s not answering his door._

Thankfully, to his surprise, Sam answered shortly after.

**_He’s gone then._ **

Dean overlooked his message and typed his next message without thought.

_What’s the code to his apartment._

The three dots of angst staggered, as if Sam hesitated.

**_4 5 1 4_ **

He punched in the four digits as soon as the text was sent, greeted by the click of the door. He stuck his head in through the widened crack of his door.

“Cas? You in there, buddy?”

He checked the hall behind him once more before stepping in. The entrance closed shut with a full snap afterwards.

“Cas?” He repeats. No answer.

The living area is empty. The tapping sunlight leaks through his thin curtains. He looks over to the television, which is playing a muted episode of _friends._

He checks in the bedroom, there’s no sign. His clothes are scattered throughout the room and his phone sits on the bedside table, along with his laptop. When he lifts the phone up, it lights up with all of Dean’s missed calls and texts. He frowns.

Dean travels to the bathroom and the sink tap is just barely tripping. The room smells like aftershave and there’s an unused razor sitting on the right.

When he walks into the living room again, he notices the scent of something burnt, but already cooled. He glances around before almost running into the kitchen.

Dean’s eyes expand, “What the-”

There’s a flour-sized bag of sea salt spilt all over the kitchen tiles. On the island sits a black cookie tray that looks like it’s been in a deep fryer set to 400.

He picks it up to examine it, but drops it with a loud gasp, creating an echoed clatter that bounced off the walls. He’s never leaped to something so quick.

“Cas!”

Dean practically leaps to Castiel, who's sprawled on the ground, unconscious, around the corner of the counter. He checks for a pulse, his own heart beating louder. Grateful that he’s still breathing, Dean pats his friend’s cheeks back and forth.

Castiel’s eyes barely crack open, but shut back up again when the kitchen lights hit his eyes.

“Cas, don’t go anywhere yet! C’mon, buddy.”

“‘M can’t go anywhere,” He croaks with difficulty. Dean almost laughs at his sarcasm, but his heart is beating too fast to concentrate on it. Castiel tries to move his head to face Dean’s voice, but he grimaces.

“Are you okay? What happened? Do you need me to call an ambulance?”

“Dean-” He grunts.

“What feels broken?”

“My back,” Castiel moans as if Dean said something annoying. He sounds like he’s going to cry.

Dean, confused as to how to react, yanks his phone out of his pocket, “I’m calling someone to help us right now, Cas, don’t worry.”

“Dean, m’fine-”

Dean stared at Castiel with disbelief, “‘I’m fine’ yourself!” He mocked, “Look at you!”

“Dean,” Cas winces again, shutting his eyes closed with force, “It’s n’’at bad. S’ just my back n’ hands-”

Dean drops the phone from his hand to inspect his hands with gentle fingers. Both of his hands, palm and back, are covered with red and rashy dots. When Dean moves to lift his sleeve, Castiel flinches back.

“Cas, buddy, you need immediate help- God knows how long you’ve been like this-”

“Yesterday.” He interrupts with a croak.

Dean's eyes search the kitchen, preferably for something useful. He continues his sentence, “-and I’m going to call an ambulance right now.” Castiel’s Adam’s apple visibly bobbed and he hardly nods as approval.

“Hang on, I’m right here, Cas,” Dean panics, still trying to figure out what’s happening.

He takes deep breaths and dials the number.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> omg surprisingly enough, I've never seen the inside of an apartment building before, so I did the minimal research before diving into this SKJSKJ sorry ! the same thing with the sea salt allergy but I did more research on that. 
> 
> Thank you SOO much for reading this so far. Kudos and comments are greatly appreciated and they help motivate me to write more <333


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